#2 Check out Heian temple athttp://www.cs.ucla.edu/~jmg/ah/enichiji.html. Read thru main page and history of Enichi, and take virtual reality tour- then answer these questions: 1) Describe the social, political, and economic function of the Enichiji temple in Heian society, 2) How does the temple of Enichi reflect the coexistence of Chinese culture with indigenous (traditional)early Japanese culture?, 3) Would you have like to have been a monk living at the Enichiji temple during the Heian period? Why or why not.

Homework # 3 Feudal Japan (POP
293-297)

Identify/Define: Samurai, Bushido, Shogun, Daimyo,

Minamoto, Kamakura, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu

1. Describe the political organization of 13th century Japan?

2. Describe the political situation in Japan during the 1400's and 1500's.

2."Zen is beyond religion and philosophy, beyond all systems and ideologies, beyond all the "isms", even beyond Buddhism". In your own words, what do you think this means?

3. Do you believe that liberation from the self as described in this reading is possible for human beings to attain? Why or why not?

Homework # 5- Film: Rashomon. Download these questions and bring them into class:

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1. In Kurosawa's own words, the story "goes into the depths of the human heart as if with a surgeon's scalpel, laying bare its dark complexities and bizarre twists." In your own words explain the theme of the story.

2. Kurosawa gives us four versions of the same episode. What are they? Which, if any, is the most convincing? What do you think really happened?

3. When do you think the story is supposed to take place? Kurosawa in many of his movies disdains the changes that carried Japan from a feudal society to a modern one, in large part because he believes that the traditional feudal values were superior. What instances can you find in the movie that reflect this point of view?

4. At the beginning of the film the firewood dealer says, "I for one..have seen hundreds of men dying like animals...but...even I've never before heard anything as terrible as this." Another character replies, "There's never been anything like this. Never...it's worse than fires...wars...epidemics...or bandits." What is so terrible about what happened here?

5. In recounting the medium's (husband's) version of the story, the priest says, "I can't believe that man would be so sinful" to which another replies, "I don't know...I don't mind that. After all, who is to be trusted nowadays?" How does this brief exchange relate to the theme of the movie? How do you think Kurosawa feels about human nature or perhaps more precisely about the nature of man as Japan grows out of feudalism? Near the end the Priest thanks the wood dealer saying, "I think I'll be able to keep my faith in man." What does he mean?

EXTRA-CREDIT OVER WINTER BREAK!

Go to the Asia Society or the Japanese exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. Write a reflective essay of no more than a page and half and no less than one page about what you learned. Attach your receipt to your paper.

Not Assigned this term- Spring 02- Japanese Art and Religion (POP,
296-297)

1. Go to Japanese
Art at the Met. You will have to do some searching; if you scroll down
the page there are links to different types of Japanese Art. Choose one work, print it out if possible, and briefly
describe the features that make it uniquely Japanese. Also, you may want
to take a look at Arms and Armor to see the clothes and weapons of the Samurai.

2. How did the spread of Mongol rule affect trade between Europe and Asia?

3. What evidence is there that the Chinese way of life influenced the Mongol conquerors?

#9 Position Paper- Were the Mongols were guilty of terrorism.

A position paper is a paper where you take and defend a position on a controversial question. After stating your viewpoint in the opening paragraph, support it with 3 to 4 arguments. Remember that you are trying to convince the reader that your point of view is the "correct" one. You will be asked to read it to the class. Length: No more than 2 pages, 10-12 font, double-space.

HW # 23 The Expansion of European and Its Impact on Europe, Africa, and the Americas- Read text pgs. 365-369.

1. Go to Blank Outline Map, scroll down to world map Gif, print out and: 1. Shade and label the areas of Portuguese exploration and conquest in red; Spanish in blue; French in yellow; English in Green, and Dutch in whatever color you want!

2. What were the major results of exploration and colonization for Europe, for the Americas?

3. How did the African slave trade begin and why did it increase with the growth of European colonies in the Americas?

HW # 25 African Geography and the Kingdoms and City States of East Africa. Read text pgs. 314-320

1. Name the five geographic regions of Africa.

2. What set Ethiopia apart from other African kingdoms?

3. Describe the patterns of Swahili trade?

HW # 26 The Empires of West Africa. Read text pgs. 320-324

1. Why was the gold-salt trade important to the development of West Africa?

2. What were Mansa Musa's most important achievements?

HW # 27 Film: Keita- The Heritage of the Griot

Synopsis:

Keïta creates a unique world where the West Africa of
the 13th Century Sundjata Epic and the West Africa of today co-exist and
interpenetrate. Director Dani Kouyaté frames his dramatization of the epic
within the story of Mabo Keïta, contemporary boy from Burkina Faso, learning
the history of his family. During the film, Mabo and his distant ancestor,
Sundjata, engage in parallel quests to understand their destinies, to "know
the meaning of their names." In so doing, Keïta makes the case for an
"Afrocentric" education, where African tradition, not an imported
Western curricula is the necessary starting point for African development.

Both ancient and modern storylines are initiated by the
mysterious appearance of a hunter, a passerby representing destiny who
intervenes at strategic moments to propel Sundjata and Mabo on their journeys.
The hunter both foretells the birth of Sundjata to the Mandé court and, eight
centuries later, rouses Djéliba (or Great Griot) Kouyaté to go to the city and
initiate young Mabo into the secrets of his origin. The Kouyatés have always
served as the Keïtas' griots, bards (jeli) belonging to a discrete Mandé caste
or endogamous occupational group, who alone perform certain types of poetry and
divination.

The griot's arrival creates tension in the Keíta
household especially between Mabo and his mother and his school-teacher, who
stand for a Westernized lifestyle ignorant of African tradition. Mabo becomes so
caught up in the griot's story that he stops studying for exams, day-dreams in
class and eventually skips school to tell the story to other boys.

The film pointedly contrasts the moral depth of the
griot's teachings with the sterile, culturally irrelevant facts which constitute
Mabo's "Eurocentric" education. For example, the griot first comes
upon Mabo while he is studying the Western "creation myth," Darwin's
theory of evolution, of a universe ruled only by chance and the "survival
of the fittest." In contrast, Mandé myth holds that human history is
suffused with purpose and that every person has a particular destiny within it.
By listening to The Sundjata Epic present-day Mandé listeners like Mabo can
perceive the working out of destiny in history and see their own lives as part
of a continuing narrative flow.

The Sundjata Epic, which Mabo hears recounts the life
of Sundjata Keota (sometimes spelled Sundiata or Son-Jara Keyta,) the man
responsible for turning his nation into the great Malian trading empire. Set in
the early 13th century, the epic provides the wide-spread Mandé people a legend
explaining their common origin and subsequent division into castes or clan
families. An oral recitation of the complete poem with musical accompaniment can
last close to sixty hours. But, this film, like most performances, recounts only
a part of the epic, here the events surrounding the birth, boyhood and exile of
Sundjata. (This corresponds to lines 356 to 1647 in the standard translation,
Johnson, John William. The Epic of Son-Jara: A West African Tradition,
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992.

Sundjata's quest, like Mabo's, requires the successful
reconciliation or integration of two types of power represented by his paternal
and maternal lineages. His father, Maghan Kon Fatta Konati a descendant of the
Prophet Mohammed, has brought barika or law and progress to human society. In
contrast, Sundjata's mother, Sogolon, and his grandmother, the Buffalo Woman of
Do, rely on pre-Islamic occult powers or nyama. Their potentially disruptive
effect on human civilization is symbolized by their habit of turning into
ferocious animal "doubles." Sundjata himself, hexed at birth by his
mother's co-wife, must crawl across the earth, scorned as a "reptile."
A Mandé proverb explains: "The great tree must first push its roots deep
into the earth." When the climactic moment arrives for Sundjata to walk
erect like a man, he tries to lift himself up with a seven-forged iron rod,
symbolizing man-made technology. Even this cracks beneath his strength, so the
hunter reappears and instructs Sogolon to fetch a supple branch of the sun sun
tree which has the nyama to hold Sundjata's weight. Thus, the hero must harness
natural and supernatural powers to fulfill his heroic destiny.

In the film's final scene, the griot disappears, and
for the first time Mabo directly confronts the hunter; after hearing the epic,
he is finally in touch with his destiny. At this point, the stories of the two
Keotas intersect; history and legend, event and destiny have been brought into
alignment. Indeed, in making this film, Dani Kouyaté (who shares the name of
the griot) succeeds in fulfilling the "meaning of his name." He has
used a quintessentially 20th century invention, motion pictures, to insure that
The Sundjata Epic is passed on as an inspiring force in the lives of young
Africans everywhere.

Post-film questions for discussion:

1. Why is it important for people to invent a history
for themselves? Genealogy (family ties) is a logical way for a
pre-scientific group to account for their origins? How do Americans today
account for who they are, as a species and as individuals?

2. During the wedding scene a women follows Mabo's
father as he is leaving. She is a "praise singer", a
professional musician who receives payment for proclaiming the greatness of a
family and to flatter its guests. How does her function both parallel and
differ from the griots's relationship to Mabo and his family?

3. The film deliberately contrasts the teaching of the
djeliba with the curriculum at Mabo's school. Mabo's formal education is
made to seem irrelevant to daily life and lacking ethical content. For
example, it contrasts the amorality of Darwin's theory of evolution with the
defined rights and obligations Mabo inherits as a descendant of Sundjata.
What do you think of this approach?

4. What do you suspect is the significance of the fact
that Sundjata cannot lift himself with the iron stick but only the
sapling?

5. The Sundjata Epic, like "Keita" itself,
necessarily present only one version of history. The griot reminds Mabo of
this when he asks, "Do you wonder why the hunter always wins against the
lion? If lions wrote stories, don't you think they would win some
time? To what extent do you think all history is in essence myth, so that
we are left to choose which interpretation is most relevant or even therapeutic
to our present situation?

1. Describe the religious problem that Elizabeth inherited from her father and explain how she dealt with the problem at the beginning of her reign?

2. How did each of the following contribute to worsening relations between England and Spain? a) English sea dogs, b) Dutch Protestants, c) Mary Stuart.

HW # 36 The English Civil War, read text pgs. 430-434

1. Why did James I clash with Parliament?

2. Why did Charles I clash with Parliament?, Why did he agree to sign the Petition of Right?

3. What event marked the beginning of civil war?

4. What two groups opposed each other during the war and over what issue did they fight?

5. Describe life for the English and the Irish under the rule of Oliver Cromwell.

Extra-Credit: The Trial of King Charles I Roleplay.

Is King Charles I guilty of committing treason against the state?

Format of the trial: 1. Opening statement by defense and prosecution (about two minutes each), 2. Witness- English peasant, questioned by defense and prosecution (one and a half to two minutes each), 3. Witness- Oliver Cromwell, questioned by the defense and prosecution (one and a half to two minutes each), 4. Witness- King Charles I, questioned by the defense and prosecution (one and a half to two minutes each), 5. Closing statements by defense and prosecution (about two minutes each), 6. Which side made the stronger argument? Students deliberate in groups (3 minutes), 7. Groups report decision and reasons for the decision to the class.

Each student participating in the trial should hand in one page: Lawyers- opening, closing statement, or list of ten questions, Peasant- summary of your position, Cromwell- summary of why the King should be convicted of treason, King- summary of why you should not be considered treason.

HW # 37- The Glorious Revolution, pgs. 434-437

1. How did the succession of James II lead to the development of political parties?

2. Why did Parliament invite William and Mary to rule England in 1689?

3. Name three ways the Bill of Rights limited royal power.

HW # 38- The Rise of Absolutism, Louis XIV of France, pgs. 440-447

1. Define: mercantilism, absolutism?

2. What did Colbert do to improve France's economy?

3. What political and social purposes did Versailles serve?

4. What was the War of Spanish Succession and how did the Treaty of Utrecht affect each of the countries involved inthe war?

HW # 39- LAST HOMEWORK!!! The Ming Dynasty of China 287-290.

1. What was the difference between the Imperial City and the Forbidden City?

2. What factors encouraged learning in Ming China?

3. What evidence indicates that the Chinese lost interest in contacts abroad after 1433?

STUDY FOR TERM ENDING JEOPARDY ON THURSDAY- WINNING TEAM GETS 2 POINTS EACH ON FINAL!